During their tour, the settlers chanted racist slurs against the Palestinians, singing and behaving provocatively. Kadim settlement was established on Palestinian land near Jenin in 1983 before being evacuated in 2005 as part of Ariel Sharon’s unilateral withdrawal plan.

Palestinian figures condemned a musical concert, calling it an act of Judaization, for which preparations are being made by Israeli municipality of Occupied Jerusalem to be held in the city for four days starting from Monday evening in different districts of the city.

Naser Hadmi, head of the Jerusalemite committee against Judaization, told Quds Press that Palestinians have to adhere to Jerusalem’s sacred places and history, and called on Jerusalemites to commemorate all of their events at the Aqsa Mosque within a national strategic vision to preserve Jerusalem and its Islamic identity.

For his part, the chief of the Islamic Higher Committee and the preacher at the Aqsa Mosque Ekrema Sabri told Quds Press that Israeli authorities by holding that concert in Occupied Jerusalem aim at Judaizing the Muslims’ holy city and provoking Muslims feelings in order to ignite further tensions in the city.

Israeli municipality in Jerusalem, along with a number of Israeli institutions, has been organizing Jewish festivals and ceremonies in Occupied Jerusalem over the year.

Those events bring in dozens of thousands of Jewish tourists, which makes the city look like a Jewish city especially that Jewish decorations cover the streets of the Muslims’ holy city during those Jewish celebrations.

Sheikh Taysir al-Tamimi, secretary-general of the Supreme Muslim Council in Jerusalem, has warned that Israel's plan to build a complex called "Kedem – City of David," will be the most dangerous Judaization project threatening Jerusalem and the Aqsa Mosque.

In a statement to Quds Press, Sheikh Tamimi said that Israel's approval of this project is part of its schemes aimed at Judaizing the entirety of Jerusalem and obliterating its Arab and Islamic landmarks, pointing out that Israel started to prepare for the building of Kedem complex years ago.

He expressed his belief that the absence of any Arab or Islamic role in carrying out projects in Jerusalem encouraged Israel to launch its project Kedem. The Israeli national council for planning and building recently approved a plan, which had been submitted by the settler group Elad, to build a complex called "the Kedem project- City of David- Old City of Jerusalem" at the main entrances of Wadi Hilweh neighborhood in Silwan district near the Aqsa Mosque.

Elad's Kedem center will become the largest Jewish tourist center in the holy city, marketing its religious and nationalist ideology to hundreds of thousands of visitors per year. The project will include Elad's offices, stores, a museum named the "shrine of the bible," a stop for cable cars and parking lots.

Israeli military restrictions on Palestinian worshipers’ movement did not succeed to prevent their entry into al-Aqsa Mosque.

Jerusalem Media Center said that large numbers of Palestinians from occupied Jerusalem and within the Green Line managed on Thursday morning to enter the compound despite the Israeli forces’ tight restrictions in the surrounding areas.

Palestinian worshipers’ identity cards were confiscated at the entrances to the Mosque, the center pointed out.

The Israeli restrictions came to allow settlers’ break-ins into the holy shrine during the Jewish holiday of Purim, he explained.

Nearly 37 settlers stormed the compound early this morning via al-Magharibeh gate under Israeli forces’ protection, which led to a state of tension among the worshipers.

Extremist right-wing Israeli groups have earlier called for storming al-Aqsa Mosque during Purim wearing masks traditionally worn during the holiday. Israeli police declared that a security cordon will be imposed on the West Bank during Purim holiday starting from Thursday till Saturday.

The Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) banned 18 Palestinians from Occupied Jerusalem in an attempt to wipe out Palestinian presence and hold sway over the city.

A PIC journalist quoted local sources as stating that on Tuesday the IOA banned 17 Palestinians from entering the holy al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City.

Hours later, the IOA banned 21-year-old Hamza Melhes from Occupied Jerusalem for four months, from March 27 to July 21.

Melhes said the IOF stopped him at al-Sahira Gate and dragged him to the Qishleh detention center in the Old City, where he was notified of the ban. Melhes added that the Israeli occupation officer ordered him to leave Occupied Jerusalem right away, four days before the date set up in the ban.

Melhes said he will neither leave Occupied Jerusalem nor his family home in the Old City despite the Israeli threats to incarcerate him in case he does not abide by the order.

Head of the Jerusalemite Prisoners’ Committee, Amjad Abu Asab, said such bans make part of an Israeli plan to hold sway over Occupied Jerusalem and the holy al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Hamas Movement has urged the Palestinian people in all areas of the West Bank, Jerusalem and the 1948 occupied lands to rally around the Aqsa Mosque and defend it against mass break-ins to be organized by extremist Jewish groups nowadays.

In a press release, Hamas spokesman Husam Badran stated that "the Aqsa Mosque would remain the destination for the revolutionist youth and their first inspiration in their blessed al-Quds intifada (uprising)."

Badran also warned that the settlers' intended break-ins at the Aqsa Mosque would augment the flames of the intifada and provoke the Palestinian young people into carrying out more painful attacks.

The spokesman called, in particular, on the Palestinians in Jerusalem and the 1948 occupied lands to heed the call of Sheikh Ra'ed Salah for intensifying their presence in the Aqsa Mosque and defending it.

Extremist Jewish groups, including Students for the Temple, have called on their followers to march en masse to the Aqsa Mosque on Wednesday and Thursday to celebrate the Purim holiday.

The Israeli “Regional Planning and Construction Council” approved, on Wednesday, the so-called “Kedem – City of David” colonialist project that would be undertaken at the main entrances of the Wadi Hilweh Palestinian neighborhood, in Silwan town, south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Wadi Hilweh Information Center, in Silwan (Silwanic), said the approval came during a brief meeting held on Tuesday.

It added that Palestinians from Wadi Hilweh attended the session, but had to withdraw after being constantly interrupted whenever they testified about the devastating outcome of such a project occurring on their lands.

The residents also complained that they were denied the right to Arabic interpretation during the council meeting.

Lawyer Sami Ersheid said that the Regional Council denied, Tuesday, all

appeals filed against the Kedem project, and canceled the 2014 decision of the “Appeals Committee” of the “Higher Planning Council,” to completely void the project.

Ersheid added that the decision of the Appeals Council was very brief, barely two pages, in which it voided the 140-page decision of the appeals committee, issued in June of 2014, and never provided any justification for the legal, planning and construction reasons that pushed it for approval in the first place.

“The hearing at the Regional Council meeting demanding discussing all appeals against the project in just four hours, this is not enough because each section of the project needs at least 15 minutes”, Ersheid said, “Such deliberations in the previous session lasted for two days, each day for eight hours.”

He added that Wadi Hilweh residents, Ir Amim and Emek Shaveh organizations, along with several Israeli academics, have all filed appeals against the 2014 decision of the Regional Committee approving the project in 2014, and that the entire colonialist project was voided by the Appeals Committee in 2015.

“The decision of the Regional Committee is merely political,” he stated, “it is not legal, it was pushed by pressures from the higher political leadership; the Regional Council was just talking about the touristic importance of this project, and completely ignoring the harm and suffering that would be inflicted on the Palestinians in Silwan. We will file appeals and demand voiding the Regional Council’s decision; we will demand approving the decision of the Appeals Committee.”

He also stated that Israel wants to build a six-story building on 12.000 square/meters, for the use of the Israeli archeology department, in addition to a conference hall, educations rooms, parking lots for tourists and settlements, commercial stores, and offices run by the Elad colonialist organization, largely funded by millionaires from the United States.

The Wadi Hilweh Information Center and Committee issues a joint statement denouncing the approval of the colonialist project, originally submitted by Elad, and said that this approval just goes to serve the illegitimate plans in replacing the indigenous Palestinians with colonialist settlers, and colonialist projects.

They said that the approval of this project, originally voided nine months ago, “came in a racist session, that was merely for show,” and denied the residents the right to present their case, or to present the devastating outcome of this colonialist project.

They added that its approval will be the gateway for the addition of many more colonialist projects on Palestinian lands in Silwan, and demanded the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to immediately intervene, especially since this project aims at destroying Arab and Palestinian heritage and archeology, and demanded the International Community to act in helping the residents to counter this illegal project.

The “Kedem” project aims at the illegal annexation of large areas of lands in Wadi Hilweh -- lands that, until Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1967 -- were used for agriculture, before Israel illegally confiscated them, demolished a room owned by the Abda family, and turned the grounds into a parking lot.

In 2003, the Elad colonialist organization managed to gain control over the lands, and started planning before actually digging in al-Magharba Square, in addition to destroying Ottoman, Byzantine and Roman sites, and left just a few of them as an “archeological proof of the second temple.”

Hundreds of Israelis, including large numbers of settlers, converged on religious sites across the occupied West Bank on Wednesday morning ahead of the Jewish holiday of Purim, in visits Palestinians condemned as "provocative."

In the southern West Bank city of Hebron, Israeli settlers as well as other right-wing Israelis held celebrations in the Old City's Ibrahimi Mosque.

Locals told Ma'an that during the celebrations, which began late Tuesday, the settlers "provocatively" used the mosque's loudspeakers "to sing racist songs that call for the expulsion of 'Arabs' from Hebron."

The settlers were under the heavy protection of Israeli forces, who closed off the premises, preventing Palestinians from entering the mosque, and restricted access to the surrounding area.

Some Israeli media sites reported that as many 7,000 Israelis celebrated at the holy site, known to Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

The site has long been a flashpoint, and was split into a synagogue and a mosque following a 1994 attack by an Israeli settler who opened fire on Muslim worshipers, killing 29 and injuring more than 100 Palestinians.

Separately on Wednesday, clashes broke out as hundreds of Israelis, including settlers, visited Joseph's Tomb near Balata refugee camp east of Nablus under military escort, Palestinian security sources said.

As many as 500 Israelis arrived in 10 buses at the holy site at dawn, the sources told Ma'an.

Large numbers of Israeli forces accompanied the Israelis to the site, and clashes quickly erupted, with local youths from Balata hurling stones at Israeli military jeeps, and soldiers firing tear gas canisters in return.

A number of protesters reportedly suffered excessive tear gas inhalation, although no other injuries were reported.

An Israeli army spokesperson had no immediate information on the reports.

Joseph's Tomb -- revered by Jews, Muslims, Christians and Samaritans -- is the site of regular visits by Israelis, who are escorted by Israeli military forces to the area, often leading to clashes with local Palestinians.

Under the 1993 Oslo Accords, Joseph's Tomb was to remain under Israeli control, but the Palestinian Authority took over the site after the Israeli army withdrew during the Second Intifada.

As part of security cooperation with the PA, the Israeli army allows Jewish worshipers to make monthly pilgrimages to the site.

The Jewish holiday of Purim, which commemorates the Biblical account of the saving of the Jewish people from Haman, an ancient Persian vizier, begins Wednesday evening and ends late Thursday.

Israeli forces have put in place stringent restrictions on Palestinians' movement ahead of the holiday.

Sheikh Ra'ed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement in the 1948 occupied lands, has expressed his fears that the Israeli occupation would have a hand in utilizing and exploiting the security camera system to be installed by Jordan at the Aqsa Mosque.

In press remarks to Qpress, Sheikh Salah called on the Jordanian Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs and Sites to reconsider the installation of security cameras at the Aqsa Mosque.

"I expressed my belief in the past few days, and I still say that if we are certain that these cameras will remain under the control of the Jordanian Ministry of Awqaf alone, then we could say it is a good project, but what will happen, unfortunately, that the Israeli occupation will insert its finger into the cameras, which will be under its control and turn into 55 eyes for it," he stated.

For his part, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, head of the Supreme Muslim Council in Jerusalem, told Arabi 21 news website that the recent agreement to deploy surveillance cameras at the Aqsa Mosque is considered a gain for Israel only. He warned Jordan of giving Israel what he described as a license of partnership in running the Aqsa Mosque.

According to local sources, hordes of Israeli extremist settlers and intelligence officers defiled the plazas of the holy Mosque.

The peaceful Muslim sit-inners kept chanting Allah is the Greatest in protest at the sacrilegious break-in. Israeli police troops and special forces escorted the Israeli fanatics all the way through the incursion.

Israeli break-ins at al-Aqsa place of worship —the third holiest site in Islam— have fanned the flames of the ongoing anti-occupation intifada, which started in early October.

A statistical report issued by Quds Press revealed that over 700 Jewish settlers stormed the plazas of the Aqsa Mosque since the beginning of March.

Quds Press pointed out that Israeli police provide settlers, who break into the Aqsa’s courtyards, with protection during their repeated incursions into the Muslims’ holy site and allow them to conduct Talmudic rituals at the Mosque.

On the other hand, Israeli police bar 50 Palestinian women and 5 men from accessing the Aqsa Mosque and performing prayers in it.

Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs of Jordan Hayel Daoud declared on Saturday that the ministry will set up 55 surveillance cameras at the plazas of the Aqsa Mosque in order to document and expose Israeli violations.

Meanwhile, groups of Israeli settlers called for massive incursions into the Aqsa Mosque next Wednesday and Thursday to mark the Jewish Purim festival.

Eyewitnesses said Glick and a horde of extremist settlers broke into the Mosque at 7.30 a.m. via the Maghareba Gate and defiled its plazas.

Israeli occupation police and rapid intervention troops escorted the Israeli fanatics all the way through the assault. The Israeli occupation troops cracked down on the peaceful Muslim worshipers who kept chanting “Allah is the Greatest” in protest at the break-in.

Israeli sacrilegious break-ins at al-Aqsa —the third holiest site in Islam— have fanned the flames of the ongoing anti-occupation intifada, which started in early October.